FEATURED Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy

Combine the fun of LEGO with all the action and excitement of Star Wars now lets you battle through all your favorite moments in the Original Star Wars Trilogy (Episodes IV, V and VI)

Play over 50 of your favorite characters in a humorous and unique LEGO setting — from Luke and Princess Leia to Han Solo and Darth Vader

Build and ride new vehicles and creatures and get in and out to explore the world of the Original Star Wars Trilogy

Create and customize new characters with new abilities

Even more destructible environments and more challenging puzzles — playing LEGO Star Wars has never been more fun

The Empire strikes back in this sequel to the endearing Star Wars game made all of LEGOs. LEGO Star Wars II follows the Rebel Alliance’s battle to dismantle the Galactic Empire and rebuild a galaxy in pieces. From Darth Vader’s pursuit of Princess Leia aboard her blockade runner to a showdown on the reconstructed Death Star the game includes even more of the family-friendly LEGO action. The sequel finally allows you to build with your LEGO blocks as a new Free Play mode allows gamers to customize the vehicles for new ship designs as well as Free Play all of the playable characters (over 100 in total) by mixing and matching body parts forming the likes of “Stormbacca” “Chew Vader” and “Leia Wan Kenobi.” Other additions include cool new character-specific attacks and maneuvers Power Brick items playable mini-kit vehicles an improved two-player camera a greater challenge for advanced players and more.Format: XBOX Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: RP UPC: 023272329754 Manufacturer No: 32975

This review is from: Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (Video Game)

I loved the original Lego Star Wars game. It was incredibly fun, very replayable and had a wicked sense of humor. Lego Star Wars II is just as fun, and covers Episodes IV-VI!

It’s very rare to find a game that kids can play, adults can play, and everybody truly loves it. This is one of those games. I’m sure kids enjoy the game quite a lot – but pretty much every adult gamer I know loves this series as well. It’s fun, it has classic scenes from the Star Wars movies done in a VERY funny style, and you can keep replaying it. You can play it with friends! You can unlock new episodes, new ships, new characters, you name it.

The first thing you notice when you enter the “Cantina” is that now you can MAKE NEW CHARACTERS!!! Yes, you can mix up Darth Vader’s head, Princess Leia’s torso and a stormtrooper’s pants. You can mix pretty much any character you find in the game, and give them personalized names! Then you can bring 2 of your creations into the game with you on free play mode. Talk about fun!!

The game gets even better. Yes, you work through all the classic scenes – Luke buying the droids, the Death Star blowing up, and so on from the “first 3 movies” (in release order at least). The cut scenes are VERY funny. Being able to play along as the various characters is amazingly fun in story mode, and even better in “free play” when you can randomly switch between a variety of characters to find all the hidden items.

I love the stud finding system. You want more money? Just replay a mission a few times. You can get all sorts of fun “cheats” (not cheats, really, but fun add-ons), you can buy new characters to use, and much more. It really gives you incentive to keep playing.

Is a youngster in the house having trouble playing? Just have an adult pop into the game for a while to help out, then the adult can pop out again, to let the child keep playing! It is just brilliant. I love this game.

The graphics are superb, as last time, with little lego movements seeming just right. Their swaggers and sliders are incredibly funny. The sound, of course, is the real movie soundtrack and is superb. You couldn’t ask for anything better.

Even the tiny touches are funny. If C-3PO starts getting hit, he loses an arm, then another arm, then a leg. You have him hopping along valiantly behind you, trying to remain with your team. Chewie rips off arms from stormtroopers.

Now of course, there are always a few things the game designers get wrong. While Chewie’s arm-ripping is quite funny, it is REALLY annoying when he does it – very slowly – in the middle of a firefight when you wanted him to be blasting away. The characters automatically switch into close combat mode if they think someone is nearby, even if you really needed to fire away at someone with the blaster. Even more annoying, if you’re blasting away at “destructables” (wall items, whatever) and your friend gets near you start bashing on him!

The camera is also really annoying. You get a *slight* amount of view control, but not much. When you are craning around trying to find a mini-kit on the screen and the camera keeps swooping wildly exactly where you do NOT want to look, it can get very frustrating.

Still, these are minor problems in a game that is so stellar. I highly, highly recommend this game for any gamer of any age. It’s incredibly fun.

This review is from: Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (Video Game)

The original Lego Star Wars was a great little lighthearted romp of a game: an amusing way to play out the three most recent Star Wars films in virtual form. The Lego and Star Wars combo proved to also be a terrific formula for the game space, generating an experience in Lego Star Wars that was oftentimes even more entertaining than the source material it was based on. Like any good sequel, Lego Star Wars II improves on the original in almost every way. But most importantly, it’s about the good episodes now. For that reason alone, Lego Star Wars II is one of the most enjoyable games of this fall.

Featuring the story lines and characters of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, it’s hard to believe that any Star Wars fan (which is, what, pretty much everyone?) wouldn’t love this game. While the gameplay is pretty standard action fare for the most part, it’s somehow made so much more fun because of the Lego characters. Levels that could perhaps be dismissed as lackluster in other games absolutely work here. Star Wars scenes are comically recreated and look and sound great (though, to nitpick, some of the John Williams music samples don’t play in their entirety, making you wish for more). But make no mistake, even those without a predilection for Star Wars will enjoy this — it’s the combination of great story lines, characters, and comedic elements provided by Lego that makes it all work. The game’s designers clearly had fun with it all — you’ll be continuously entertained by how they incorporated elements of the film into the gameplay (often taking some rather humorous liberties along the way). The Lego brand clearly afforded them freedom to have fun with the Star Wars license.

While most of the gameplay consists of run-and-gun action, there are lots of puzzles to be found — many of which are quite good, even though some have rather unclear objectives — and several missions that take place in vehicles (from AT-ST Walkers to X-wings). While the vehicular stages vary in terms of quality, the mere fact that so many exist really adds to the scope of the game. Lego Star Wars II offers a surprising amount of playtime, and is much larger and longer than the original game (which was one of its biggest criticisms). Once again, you control a group of characters that pertain to a scene, allowing you to easily switch between them on the fly in order to take advantage of their unique abilities. Unfortunately, though, your A.I.-controlled buddies are kind of clueless at times and offer little support in battles (while they do fire, it’s all for show — their shots inflict no damage on enemies). The game’s far better when a second player joins in to play (a game can be joined at any time); it’s loads of fun as a co-op experience. It’s just a shame that Lego Star Wars II offers no online support.

What’s also neat about the game is that there’s a lot to do outside of the standard mission structure. There are lots of collectables to gather, secret items to discover, and hidden areas to unlock (certain areas aren’t immediately accessible on the first playthrough — only on return using other characters can they opened). The option to build your own custom characters with parts taken from others (such as a C-3PO equipped with a Darth Vadar head) is amusing as well.

There’s definitely a lot of fun to be had with Lego Star Wars II, making it a good choice for those looking for a solid action-platformer; it’s an ideal choice for those fans of Star Wars. It’s also perfect for almost all ages, offering a rewarding experience even for younger players. All of the many versions (Xbox 360, PS2, PC, Xbox, GameCube, and PSP) look essentially the same, with the PC version offering better resolutions and the Xbox 360 version more visual effects (though it’s unfortunately priced $10 more than the others). Rumor has it that developers Traveller’s Tales have more Lego games in the works after this (including one based on Batman) — here’s hoping, as this formula simply works.